The propaganda monster of Rural Missouri.

"It reminded us that propaganda in some form or other lurks in every book, that every work of art has a meaning and a purpose - a political, social and religious purpose - that our aesthetic judgements are always coloured by our prejudices and beliefs"--George Orwell Now that the election is over, and the last vote has been tallied its back to business as usual for most. But for us down here trying to put "boots on the ground" and lay down some grassroots for the upcoming election cycle our work really is getting started. I say that because we are fighting two war fronts at the same. One coming from the super urban progressives and hardliners of the democratic party and trying to blame rural folks for the way the election turned out in the state. It's grueling and almost turning into a metaphorical bloodbath between urban and rural progressives and it's exhausting. I say that because instead of building bridges, they would rather use outdated stereotypes and classism to justify the scapegoating for the bad results. But what these folks aren't seeing is the fact we got a fight on the monster of propaganda of the GOP on the other side. I am not even joking when I say that the GOP's propaganda machine is a finely tuned and well-oiled machine that is nothing short of being a beast that runs on its own that's pumped fear, seeds of deceit, and disinformation/misinformation into rural areas for decades. It's circulated through churches to media platforms that have been bought out by the conservative side (if you want to call them that) over the past 20 years. Folks in Urban areas lack the understanding that we don't have a lot of options when it comes to getting access to the information that would allow easier access to combat this machine. We don't have broadband and barely have internet access, our cell towers themselves are limited in places. I mean I barely get cell service at my house and I'm not that far from town. We don't have very many local papers other than what is conservatively owned (And yes they proudly put that on their headers) which gets pretty lop-sided when it comes to balance and neutrality. In my part of the world, our closest T.V. station comes from Springfield. I will give those stations credit because they do try to cover our region but sometimes they miss the mark. There are no rural podcasts really available, or even AM radio talk shows because they're also mainly geared towards fox news and Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh. Radio stations it's all country music stations or Christian channels to choose from when it comes to radio that's all owned by one company and goes with whoever is feeding them money. While this is my particular area that I'm describing--It's fair to say that rural areas are having similar issues across the state with this machine. It also uses folks with "word of mouth". As the song "Everyone talks" by Neon Trees says, everyone does talk. Be it about the weather, gossip, to politics, it's the easiest way to spread information and stay informed about the happenings in town. It's also the cheapest and most effective route to reach folks, and clearly, that works out for them. But was all this done by accident? There's no chance that it was done by accident, in fact, I would argue that it was done by design to grab power away from folks. The UDC (United Daughters of the Confederacy) that kicked off the Jim Crow era and had history books rewritten to push the myth of the "Lost Cause of the south" used the same method to control the narrative and still to this day do.[1] What Urban folks are not seeing is we're still fighting the same Jacksonian Conservatives that decided to split the nation for atrocious ideas, concepts, and practices. Well, it's the same thing now in 2022 but it just has a new face under unadulterated capitalism, fear of immigrants (that hasn't changed), and having a fit because people are tired of their nonsense.[2] So it's not that folks are voting for conservatives for the fun of it or out of ignorance. It's done as a means of survival and being conditioned for the past 20 years to do so with no other options to choose differently. We do not have the extra resources to combat this beast as the urban areas do. We have us and our phones with some links that folks may or may not believe because it disrupts their heavily conditioned point of view, due to it being the only thing they're exposed to. What I am saying is rural areas are suffering from a form of Stockholm Syndrome and have been held hostages for years. This is something folks from the outside are not seeing or deliberately ignoring because it makes it that much easier to blame a group of people for their own failings in the democratic process. At the end of the day, folks in rural areas are more progressive than people want to admit, and we are here. We're busy fighting a silent minority's propaganda machine one day at a time with limited resources that we have access to. So to my peeps that live in a metro area or urban areas, All I ask from you is to take a closer look at our battlefield, because we can't fight both fronts at the same time. It's too mentally draining and flat-out exhausting to have to defend our existence while fighting back with a group that wants nothing more than to see everyone under their heel. I'm also asking folks to leave their precondition prejudices and colored aesthetic judgments at the door and take a closer look at our situation. Oh and please stop blaming poor folks for being poor. Shaming someone for their situation has never brought anyone out of poverty. Please be a hand up instead of being the hand that holds someone down. I am going to leave a link for Jess Piper [3] thread on this very topic too for folks to see what it's looking like. As always take care and be good to another Much love and peace out Jojo Citation 1. https://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/os-ed-letters-confederate-statue-removal-does-not-change-history-20170525-story.html 2.https://dornsife.usc.edu/news/stories/3441/germanys-nostalgia-antebellum-american-south/ https://www.facingsouth.org/2019/04/twisted-sources-how-confederate-propaganda-ended-souths-schoolbooks 3. https://twitter.com/piper4missouri/status/1590709823381069824